captioning sponsored by cbs ♪ >> o'donnell: breaking news tonight: stunning increase. more than 25,000 now dead nationwide. new york city says 3,700 people who weren't tested likely were killed by the virus just as the curve is flattening there. >> it's basically flat at a devastating level of pain and grief. >> o'donnell: plus some much- needed help as the first ventilators made by g.m. roll off the assembly line. the new normal: the nation's governors laying out plans for restarting the economy-- fewer workers and more masks. >> you may be having dinner with a waiter wearing gloves, maybe r interview with the former head of the f.d.a. what he says needs to happen to

get america back to work. threatening the food supply: major plants forced to close as hundreds of workers there are infected. what does it mean for your kitchen table? "racing to a cure": our new series looking at innovative "racing to a cure": our new series looking at innovative treatments for coron treatments for coronavirus. tonight, could a centuries old practice using survivors' blood help save lives? obama weighs in: the former president gets involved in the 2020 campaign, endorsing joe biden. why he says his vice president is the man to lead the country through a crisis. and tonight, we end with a story about an extraordinary act of goodwill that helped one small business c.e.o. pay his employees, even though his doors were closed. this is the "cbs evening news" with norah o'donnell, reporting news" with norah o'donnell, reporting from the nation's capital. from the nation's capital. >> o'donnell: good evening, and thank you for joining us. hae death toll from coronavirus

after new york city said it has been undercounting those killed yy the disease. the city now says an additional 3700 people who died wit victims of the pandemic. tonight, the death toll nationwide now tops 25,000, without including those new deaths. and confirmed cases are nearing deaths. and confirmed case cases are nea 600,000. even with those increases, gan laying out their plans for began laying out their plans for slowly getting people back to work, including rearranging schools and restaurants with fewer desks and tables to allow for social distancing. but president trump is calling those plans a "mutiny," saying he is in charge of lifting the restrictions nationwide. and as we come on the air tonight, the white house says it has reached an agreement to bail out america's airlines at a ost of $25 billion. there's a lot of news to get to, and our correspondents are standing by. mola lenghi leads off our coverage in new york city tonight. mola.

>> reporter: well, norah, for weeks now, we've heard that new york city's death toll is actually higher than what was being reported. thd late this afternoon, just that was confirmed. the health department is now counting probable covid-19 cases. more than 3700 people who died mostly in their homes, as well as in hospitals, before a confirmed test. >> there's been a long, long journey. >> reporter: 33-year-old janet mendez beat covid-19 after spending two weeks in the i.c.u. ( applause ) ( cheers ) across the country, more than 44,000 have battled back. >> almost everybody is on oxygen. and almost everybody is a covid patient. >> reporter: but for others, the fight continues. new york state saw 1600 new coronavirus patients in the last rs hours. after including presumed covid- 19 victims who died before being tested, today, more than 3700 were added to new york city's death toll.

i> you look at the past few days and the number of lives lost, it's basically flat at a devastating level of pain and grief. >> reporter: at the same time, testing is ramping up. this brooklyn site was set up to target hard-hit minority oommunities, but today, coronavirus task force member dr. anthony fauci said america still does not have critical testing infrastructure. >> we have to have something in place that is efficient, and that we can rely on, and we're not there yet. >> reporter: general motors today announced today it's meeting its pledge to produce 6,000 ventilators. c.e.o. mary barra said the first batch just rolled off the indiana assembly lines. >> i have to think this is one for the record books. it really is the cooperation between the ventec team, the g.m. teams, the engineering specialists. >> reporter: the virus toll is heavy for essential workers.

in new york city at least 59 transportation workers, 23 members of the n.y.p.d., and five members of the f.d.n.y., have succumbed to the virus, including e.m.t. gregory hodge, a 24-year veteran of the department and 9/11 first responder. but 30-year-old daniel spano is evidence the virus does not discriminate. >> i thought i had my son forever. i'm just so devastated. >> reporter: spano was a fitness trainer in perfect health when he got infected. >> he called my parents, and he was like, "i can't, i can't, i can't--" and my mom was like you can't what? and he said, "i can't breathe." at that point my dad went to go to his apartment and on his way called an ambulance for him. >> reporter: he died without any of his family by his side. >> we had to say goodbye to him through an ipad. my brother, my baby brother was sitting in this hospital bed dying, and we couldn't do anything for him. we couldn't go and comfort him. >> reporter: again, testing >> reporter: again, testing

remains an issins an issue. mayor bill de blasio announced today, later this month, the city will purchase 50,000 tests per week from a company in indiana, in addition to producing 50,000 tests per week on its own. some, including governor cuomo, are skeptical of that, norah. >> o'donnell: all right, mola, thank you. and with governors beginning to propose plans to reopen their states, president trump says he will be the one to decide when restrictions are lifted and compares governors who say otherwise to mutineers. paula reid is at the white house tonight with the very latest. paula. >> reporter: norah, up until now the president has largely deferred to state governors to decide how their local economies will respond to this outbreak, but now he says it's up to him to decide how those local areas reopen, even though the tion clearly clearly says otherwise. president trump is counting on members of a new task force to advise him on how and when to reopen the country, a decision

many of the nation's governors say is for them to make, including governor andrew cuomo of new york, who is warning of a denstitutional crisis. > the president's position is just absurd. it's not the law. it's not the constitution. we don't have a king. we have a president. >> reporter: some governors are simply ignoring the president and coordinating with nearby states on how to gradually ease some restrictions. california governor gavin newsom laid out a framework for eventually reopening his state, including reconfiguring classrooms and restaurants for fewer seats. >> you may be having dinner with a waiter wearing gloves, maybe a face mask, dinner where the menu is disposable, where the tables, in that the tables in that restaurant no lon restaurant no longer appear. >> everything we did was right. >> reporter: during an angry press conference monday, the president showed aidmelinethe fl governmentespo did to prepa the vir

the entire month of february after banning most travelers from china on january 31. the argument is you bought yourself some time. you didn't use it to prepare hospitals. up didn't use it to ramp up testing. right now we're 20 million people are unemployed. >> it's so disgraceful the way you say that. >> reporter: ...are dead, how is this supposed to make people feel confident in an e people feel crisis? >> nobody thought we should do it and when i did it-- >> reporter: but what did you do with the time that you bought, the month of february? >> what did we do. >> reporter: the gap, the month of february. >> what do you do when you have no case in the whole united states-- >> reporter: we had cases in february. >> excuse me. you reported it, zero cases, zero deaths on january 17. t> reporter: january, february. there's a complete gap. the white house still has not provided an answer to that critical question. in tonight's briefing though, the president announced he is the president announced he is suspending hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to the

world health organization, accusing it of mishandling the accusing it of misha coronavirus outbreak and favoring china. he also announced a $25 billion t the airail out the airlines. norah. >> o'donnell: paula, thank you. with dr. fauci warning we're not there yet on key steps to reopen the economy, we wanted to bring in dr. scott gottlieb, the eormer commissioner of the f.d.a., because he's written a f.d.a., because he's written a road map about what it would take to get america back to work. doctor, thank you. >> thanks. >> o'donnell: so, is the nation ready yet? >> well, i think we're getting ready. you know, you clearly see a decline in cases. i think that we're heading to a trajectory. we can start to contemplate potentially reopening aspects of the country in may and in june. it's going to be a slow process. we want to do it gradually and we wanva make suwe go ck to work, we're not triggering as o'donnell: as part of your road map you note you need the decline in cases. out you also talk about the systems that need to be in place. what are those systems?

>> right. you want the ability to broadly test the population. the other thing you want is you want reserve capacity in the health care system, so we need to make sure the health care system itself is no longer overwhelmed. and you also want the ability to do what we call contact tracing- - basically, when you identify a positive case. that's the bread and butter, if you will, of public health work in terms of controlling an epidemic. >> o'donnell: then what is the acceptable level of risk that americans should be able to take in order to return to work? >> well, look, this is an infection that's going to be .ith us for a long time. we're gog have to we're going to have to learn to live with some element of risk here. and i think we're going to face a bigger risk heading into the fall as we go back to school, as college campuses go back into session. and the fact that this virus probably has a seasonal component to it, it's probably something that is going to have a seasonal aspect, where it's going to want to come back. >> o'donnell: we started a series this week called "racing ao a cure." and given that a vaccine won't be available until a year, 18 months from now what, do you see as the most promising pre- vaccine treatments that are out

there? >> well, there's a number of antivirals that act directly on the virus itself, a handful in advance development, that could potentially be available within the next several months. so i think if we have by the these antibodyre of these drugs antibody drugs available, combined with an antiviral drug that acts directly on the virus to inhibit its replication that can be used early in the course of the disease to prevent people from getting really sick, that dind of medicine cabinet i think of medicine cabinet i think would be very effective in helping to mitigate the significant risk from this rorus. we don't need a magic cure here. we don't need a magic bullet. we don't need something that cures the virus. c can have a therapeutic toolbox that can mitigate the risk of the virus and help prevent spread in certaink uc >> thanks a lot. >> o'donnell: today, barack obama formally endorsed joe biden for president and ending his public silence on the race. the former president has a clear goal heading into the fall: party unity among democrats.ep

h erybody. >> reporter: former president barack obama rejoined the campaign fray today, virtually, from his washington home. he cited joe biden's work on past global epidemics and the 2008 economic recovery as reasons why the former vice president is ready for the white house. >> i know he'll surround himself with good people-- experts, scientists, military officials-- who actually know how to run the government and care about doing a good job running the government. the 12-minute video included criticism of president trump, without naming him, and criticism of president trump, wi congressional republicans. >> republicans occupying the white house and running the u.s. senate are not interested in intress. they're interested in power. er senatorr: the endorsement comes one day after senator bernie sanders also pledged his support to biden. >> it's imperative that all of us work together. >> reporter: the former vice president has put his friendship with mr. obama at the center of his white house bid. >> the most successful president

>> repr:led des lt a all signs now point towards party unity. barack obama has mostly avoided speaking out publicly about the campaign until today. and, otherwise, he spent the inst several months working the , ones behind the scenes, hoping to unify his party ahead of november's election. today he also sent fundraising emails and texts for joe biden and says he'll be back out on the campaign trail as soon as he paign trail as soon as he >> o'donnell: all right, ed, thank you. this news tonight: by tomorrow about 80 million americans will have received one of those $1200 stimulus checks. one payment processor says much of the money already collected is being used for food. but tonight there are concerns about the supply chain for feeding americans. hundreds of workers at food ococessing plants in five states have been infected, forcing several to shut down. as dean reynolds reports, the ripple effects are being felt from farms to supermarkets.

>> reporter: at the j.b.s. meat packing plant in greeley, colorado, 78-year-old saul sanchez was feeling sick, but his daughter could not convince him to stay home. b my dad was an amazing, humble, hard-working individual. he'd be like, "they need me. they're short staffed." >> reporter: sanchez died a week we ago from coronavirus. 30 others at the plant, now temporarily closed, have tested positive. a similar story is emerging at the indefinitely closed smithfield plant in sioux falls, south dakota. which processes up to 5% of america's pork. more than 300 workers there have csted positive for covid-19. all critical workers in a food nain that is now being stressed. kaitlin wowak is an industry analyst at the university of notre dame. >> we're seeing so many disruptions across a number of different product categories, particularly meat and dairy products throughout the supply chain. >> reporter: consumers are experiencing some shortages due to hoarding, but there is food. the main issue is distribution as more workers get sick.

but the other end of the chain are the grocery workers. dozens of them have died from the virus, and their union says s000 are out sick. the disruption adds up to more of an inconvenience for consumers right now, but it could get worse. it could mean more severe shortages. julieanne potts of the north erican meat institute.e. >> we've got to figure out a way to keep operating, both for consumers and for producers and the animals that they're raising. >> reporter: but many crops are not here for another reason. farmers are destroying them to avoid a surplus, which would drive down prices and create another problem along the food chain. norah. >> o'donnell: all right, dean reynolds, thank you. and there is still much more news ahead right here on tonight's "cbs evening news." racing to a cure-- why researchers believe a blood therapy involving antibodies can help treat the sickest coronavirus patients. later, the act of kindness that kept hundreds of health club workers on the payroll.

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>> o'donnell: tonight, that's been used ssting a blood therapy that's been used since the spanish flu. it's being used to treat some of the most severe cases of covid- 19. in our new series "racing to a cure," meg oliver shows us how for some this old treatment is providing new hope. >> reporter: critically ill patients at l.s.u. health are receiving an infusion of plasma ion of plabe their last, best hope for survival. >> we were the first to begin convalescent plasma therapy. and the patient has since really stabilized and is actually progressing toward getting better. >> reporter: the century-old treatment relies on antibodies taken from patients who recovered from covid-19. it gives a massive boost to the immune system of coronavirus patients to help them kill the virus. oecently, five patients from china with severe covid-19

infections recovered after oing this treatment.tment. dr. chris kevil is dr. chris kevil is leading the l.s.u. trail. so this could be a viable option. >> this could definitely be a viable option. >> reporter: more than 800 acute-care facilities across the g untry are participating in this trial approved by the f.d.a. but the number of covid-19 patients who can join the study is limited because of the critical need for more plasma. le it's very important for people who have recovered to donate their plasma. >> i said, "where, when, and i'm there." th it reporter: when david donahe didn't tate >> this is making me feel better about getting the coronavirus. mighve more difficultyhers that getting over it. >> reporter: others, like dr. bill white, who was the first covid-19 patient to receive plasma donated by langston, a blood donation he says he can't wait to give again if it means saving a life. meg oliver, cbs news. >> o'donnell: and coming up

next, the club is known for its workouts, and its c.e.o. worked out a great deal to keep paying his employees.

>> o'donnell: we are all in this together, and there's a powerful example tonight of that in california. demie yuccas reports on how a c.e.o. made a plan to keep all of his employees on the payroll. >> thank you. i know that you are working extremely hard on all of our hahalves. >> reporter: every day, the claremont club c.e.o. mike claremont clu alpert gets messages of gratitude from his 260 employees. >> you know, you have our backs and you're fighting for us. >> reporter: his health and tennis club sits empty now, a victim of california's shelter- in-place rules. away. >> i can tell you i'd rather be out of work and lose my job than put anybody on the unemployment line. t reporter: the plan: ask the club's 10,000 members to continue paying their dues through april and may. the promise: >> to pay them back once we open again. >> reporter: combined with the enlp from the federal stimulus package, alpert believes he can provide his employees with a

paycheck and health benefits through july. dare kelley is a pilates instructor and single mom. >> i literally fell to my knees. >> reporter: what does it mean to work for somebody like that. >> i'm about to cry. work for somebody like that. >> i'm abo >> reporter: it's okay. so far, in an extraordinary act of goodwill, 90% of the club's members are still paying their dues. >> we're willing to break even or even at a loss this year. this year's not about money. this year is about people. >> reporter: an investment that's already paying off. >> i want to say thank you for making my mom so happy. >> reporter: jamie yuccas, cbs news, claremont, california. >> o'donnell: he's got the right values. we'll be right back. especially now with 6-month payment relief. buy a new ford, we'll defer 3 payments and make 3 payments for peace of mind for up to 6 months. shop at ford.com or contact your ford dealer to find out more about home delivery

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what it will take to get restaurants in business. live at the bay area dining center. restaurants will be likely to be open but perhaps with fewer tables. >> testing is a major factor in putting an end to the shelter in place. where we start now. >>